VANCOUVER, Wash.—The customer-service counter at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW’s) leased regional office here will remain open while a sewer connection is repaired.

The repair is expected to be completed within the next several days, said Guy Norman, WDFW’s southwest Washington regional director.

“We’re making every effort to maintain customer service at this busy time of year, while taking appropriate steps to allow repairs to be carried out immediately,” Norman said.

The office, which the state leases from a private property firm, is equipped with portable toilets and bottled water while repairs are under way. Some WDFW employees who are not involved in direct customer service are working off-site while the repairs are being completed.

The regional office space, at 2108 S.E. Grand Boulevard in Vancouver, is shared by regional staff from WDFW, the state Department of Ecology, and federal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Yesterday, the City of Vancouver determined through a sewer-line test that the building’s sewer-line connection allowed sewage to enter a public stormwater line rather than a sanitary sewer line. The stormwater line eventually drains into Burnt Bridge Creek, about a mile away. It is not immediately clear when the faulty connection was made to the building, a former retail-store annex that was built more than 40 years ago and converted to office space in the 1990s.

“We’re just glad this problem was discovered, and that it can be corrected quickly,” said Norman.